Short Story: Ghosted by Rene Wolfe [READERS VOTE]

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“Ghosted”

Azura 

Dirt covers my body and I feel myself strengthening as I become one with the earth. He’s the one I trusted, but I was wrong about him… just like he’s wrong about me.

Reese was supposed to be the one. I gave him my body and what should’ve been my first child, but he ruthlessly took both, throwing them away when he was done. Now the only thing I have left is to call on my ancestors and pray for patience as I lie lifeless in a shallow grave.

The weight of the earth gets heavy, and I try not to flinch… eyes wide open as I commit his face to memory. Remembering the face of my murderer and all that he took from me.

Reese 

“Hey man, you ok?” Devin asks, with a concerned look as we leave the arena.

“Yeah.” I lie, throwing him a smile for good measure. He’s one lucky motherfucker. He’s the franchise player, with the franchise bank account, and a badass chick.

He’s got it made while my ass is struggling to stay off the practice squad. Not because I’m not good enough, but because these coaches got me fucked up. I work my ass off, just for them to tell me my defense is not good enough. So I work harder. Then when things start to look up, some chick thinks it’s a good idea to try to trap me. Nah, she had me fucked up too.

A red Mercedes is parked at the curb when I pull up and I remember I rescheduled with Tonya for tonight when Azura showed up on my doorstep yesterday… still pregnant.  I wait as she walks up the driveway, eager to find my escape inside her body, and she doesn’t disappoint. Her moans are music to my ears as she presses into me.

She’s ready… and as soon as we make it inside, I take her up against the door, hoping she can help me forget.

Azura 

For the second time this week, I watch his door in my corporeal form. He thought he killed me. Instead, he unleashed the power I’ve suppressed to live a normal life. My mother wouldn’t believe I threw away my birthright for someone like him.

As I stand at the edge of the wood line, I feel a nudge in the recesses of my mind. Someone’s trying to get in, and I realize I’ve drawn attention to myself.

I broke the number one rule of my people to undo what he did to me. The moment he took my life, I was supposed to pass on to join my ancestral coven.

But when they came to greet me, I drained them… using our connection to repair my body as it lie cold, dead and covered in dirt.

“Zura, don’t do this,” someone screams in my mind, breaking through my defenses before I quickly shut them out. I’m shocked that whoever it is, found me and made a connection so quickly.

“Don’t do this.” The voice reaches out again, this time fainter and farther away, like an echo behind a door that I’ve locked shut.

The voice is background noise as I stand watch, with a light drizzle of rain falling on my face. It sets the mood while I walk trailing my hand over the red Mercedes and his car in the driveway.

I walked this same path yesterday with so much promise and life. Not just my life, but the life of my baby. The life I couldn’t get back.

I walk to a window in the back, taking note of my surroundings before looking in to see them across the room… flinching at the sight. She’s on her knees, taking him in her mouth as he’s standing over her, bracing himself with one hand against the door, pumping into her with no restraint.

It’s sickening and sad to see how quickly he’s recovered from my demise. As much as I would like to turn away, I don’t. Instead, I focus, knowing it’ll only take a second once she looks my way.

So I wait until he has her gagging on his shit and she takes a moment to gather herself. Then her brown eyes meet mine in shock.

Reese 

“Fuck baby, take this shit! You don’t know how much I needed this.” I’m about to bust throwing my original plan out the window because as soon as we got in the door, she dropped to her knees.

“Damn.” My dick hits the back of her throat and intensifies the sensation building in my body. She gags, losing focus and for a second I’m afraid she’ll lose her enthusiasm, but she doesn’t miss a beat.

Not letting up until I throttle my pace to a slow stroke and empty myself into her mouth. She takes it, swallowing every drop before looking up at me with her hazel eyes, and for a moment, a flash of Azura’s face floods my memory before everything goes black.

I wake up with a headache, sweaty as fuck and mad as hell, when I realize I’m not in bed alone. Tonya’s still here with the lower half of her body tangled into mine, both of us drenched in sweat and body fluids from the night before.

Imma have to throw the whole bed away. Slowly, I slide her leg off of me and get up to turn on the light because something doesn’t feel right. As soon as my feet hit the floor, I slip and fall. It’s slick… and also wet. What the hell is going on?

“What the fuck, Tonya?” I ask, sliding to the door, but she doesn’t answer.   When I switch on the light, I’m not prepared for what I see. The bed is soaked in blood and dripping into a pool on the floor with Tonya’s body lying across it. Her throat’s slit.

Quickly, I switch the light off and back on to the same sight. There’s also a trail I’ve made across the room and my body’s covered in her blood. I slide down the wall, wondering what the fuck to do as I’m faced with another dead woman in my home.

After that, everything’s a blur as I clean up this mess while figuring out what the hell happened last night and what to do with the body.

Bleach fumes burn my eyes and I skip one practice… then another, faking sickness with every concerned call from my teammates. Ultimately, I take Tonya’s body to the same remote location I’d taken Azura, but I’m met with mounds of dirt and an empty grave. The fuck?

Before I can make sense of what I’m seeing, a commotion of lights, bodies and bull horns flood the night. I’m taken down and in, by the police on charges for murder. Not Azura’s, just Tonya’s, which is strange, but it doesn’t matter because her death is… enough.

Enough to pin me for murder. Enough to ruin my career… and enough to land me in jail for life.

Two years later…

Azura 

I’m uncomfortable and itching to get out. This is the longest I’ve been out of my body and in someone else’s. Hopefully, this is the last time I’ll have to do this. I’m an enchanter, like my mother.

She’s taught me everything I know. What she failed to mention is how much physical enchanting ate away at you. Mental enchanting, I could do that shit all day with my eyes closed… literally. But taking over someone’s body while suppressing their spirit took work.

As I sit in my temporary cell waiting for Reese’s arrival, I relish the amount of suffering I’ve witnessed him endure over the last two years knowing that it’ll all be over soon.

“What the fuck you doing on my bed, man?” Reese asks as he enters the cell, taking me out of my thoughts. He’s clearly having a bad day because I made sure of it. I don’t answer him, I just look with a smirk studying his face for the last time, waiting for him to make the connection.

The exact moment he does, his body goes stiff, and he loses some of the base in his voice when he asks, “How long have your eyes been that color?”

“Oh, I think you know exactly when.” I move closer to him, not recognizing my voice, while he backs away.

“Azura?”

“I just want you to know that I did this to you.” Using all the strength of my host, I wrap the braided strand of floss around his neck, holding on until his limbs come to a stop and I feel the life leave his body.

Only then do I retreat, leaving the confines of the prison and back into my body, breathing a sigh of relief as the weight of constantly suppressing someone in their own skin is lifted. I’m me again… and I got my revenge.

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